Huskers Shoot for Fourth Straight Top Five Finish

The Nebraska women’s golf team hunts for its fourth consecutive top-five finish this spring when the Huskers return to Arizona for the MountainView Collegiate, March 20-22.

The three-day, 54-hole event hosted by Kansas State on the 6,365-yard, par-72 layout of The Preserve Golf Club in Tucson gets underway with tee times off No. 1 and No. 10 beginning at 9:30 a.m. (CT) on Friday, March 20. The second round will be played on a similar schedule on Saturday, March 21, before the tournament concludes Sunday, March 22 with a shotgun start at 9:45 a.m. (CT).

The Huskers will be part of a strong 16-team field that features 13 top-100 teams, including No. 26 Iowa State, No. 30 Houston, No. 32 Kansas State, No. 34 Missouri, No. 51 Texas Tech, No. 65 North Texas, No. 74 Nebraska, No. 83 UTSA, No. 86 San Diego State, No. 89 Wisconsin, No. 95 Iowa, No. 96 Long Beach State and No. 100 Cincinnati alongside Colorado State, Wichita State and Marshall.

Nebraska is coming off its first tournament title since the 2023 Westbrook Spring Invitational in Peoria, Ariz., after winning the Morehead State SoCal Spring Invitational in Camarillo, Calif. (March 8-10).

Redshirt junior Lauren Thiele led the Huskers with a career-best 212 (-1) to take second on a 5,900-yard layout at the Sterling Hills Golf Club.

Hannah Kono added a top-five finish of her own in California by taking fourth at 216 (+3), while redshirt junior Symran Shah tied for 10th with a career-best 219 (+6). Olivia Lovegrove put four Huskers in the top 10 by tying for seventh at 218 (+5) while competing outside the lineup.

Freshmen Ailis Tribolet (T13th, 220) and Kaleigh Babineaux (T16, 221) rounded out the six-player contingent that all finished in the top 20, helping the Huskers to a three-round score of 862 (+10) to defeat Notre Dame by 13 strokes for the team title.

Prior to winning in California, the Big Red fired its way to a fourth-place finish in a strong 15-team field at the Westbrook Spring Invitational in Peoria, Ariz. (Feb. 22-23).Tribolet, a native of Chandler, Ariz., matched fellow freshman Babineaux with career-best totals of 207 (-9) to tie for sixth individually and earn Big Ten Co-Freshmen-of-the-Week honors.

Babineaux (Austin, Texas) leads the Huskers with six consecutive top-25 finishes this season, while Tribolet has added four straight top-25 showings. Babineaux also ranks second among the Huskers with her 72.75 stroke average over 20 rounds, while Tribolet has added a 73.18 average over 17 rounds in the Big Red lineup.

Kono contributed a tie for 16th in Arizona with a career-best 210 (-6). The junior from Enkoping, Sweden owns four top-25 finishes this season and a team-best 72.55 stroke average as the only Husker to play all 22 team rounds.

MountainView Collegiate
Tucson, Arizona (Host: Kansas State)
The Preserve Golf Club (Par 72, 6,365 Yards)

Schedule
Friday, March 20 (Round 1) - 9:30 a.m. (CT) - Tee Times
Saturday, March 21 (Round 2) - 9:30 a.m. (CT) - Tee Times
Sunday, March 22 (Round 3) - 9:45 a.m. (CT) - Shotgun

Live Scoring - Scoreboard.clippd.com

Participating Teams (16)
Cincinnati, Colorado State, Houston, Iowa, Iowa State, Kansas State, Long Beach State, Marshall, Missouri, Nebraska, North Texas, San Diego State, Texas Tech, UTSA, Wichita State, Wisconsin

Nebraska Lineup (5-count-4)
1. Lauren Thiele, RJr., Wahoo, Nebraska
2. Hannah Kono, Jr., Enkoping, Sweden
3. Symran Shah, RJr., Carrollton, Texas
4. Ailis Tribolet, Fr., Chandler, Arizona
5. Kaleigh Babineaux, Fr., Austin, Texas

Hall Takes Reins of Husker Program as Nebraska’s Sixth Head Coach
With a proven record of helping aspiring young golfers drastically improve their games, first-year Nebraska Head Coach Breanne Hall inherits a roster filled with nine returning Huskers and one transfer who followed her from Illinois State. However, among the 12 golfers on Nebraska’s roster, nine are in either their first or second seasons as Huskers.

A three-time Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year, Hall was named the sixth head coach of the Nebraska women’s golf program on May 15, 2025 after Coach Jeanne Sutherland announced her retirement. Hall won back-to-back MVC Coach-of-the-Year honors at Illinois State in 2024 and 2025. She led the Redbirds to three NCAA Tournament appearances over the past four seasons and was also the 2022 Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year.

Hall’s 2025 Illinois State team won the Missouri Valley Conference title by 31 strokes before finishing 11th at the NCAA Columbus Regional. In 2024, Illinois State won the Missouri Valley Conference title by 12 strokes with Ali Schrock sharing the tournament title. The Redbirds went on to finish 12th at the NCAA East Lansing Regional.

The Redbirds earned their first conference title under Hall’s direction in 2022 and their first MVC title in a decade, edging Missouri State by one stroke and capping the year with a 12th-place finish at the NCAA Stillwater Regional.

During her time at Illinois State, Hall coached three MVC Golfers of the Year and 15 all-conference selections. Her teams produced the five best single-season scoring averages in school history over the past five years. Prior to taking over the top spot at Illinois State, Hall spent a season recruiting a roster before serving as the head coach for two seasons at UNC Asheville (2016-18). As the first head coach in history of the fledgling program, Hall led UNC Asheville to a pair of tournament titles in the first two seasons of the program’s existence. Her team posted a nine-stroke improvement in scoring average from year one to year two.

Tribolet, Kono, Babineaux Lead Huskers to Runner-Up Finish in Texas
Ailis Tribolet and Hannah Kono both earned top-10 individual finishes to lead Nebraska to a runner-up showing at the 15-team Texas Golf Throwdown (Feb. 16-17).

The Huskers, who finished with a three-round total of 901 (+37) on the 6,311-yard, par-72 layout of The Woodlands Country Club, took second behind Iowa State. The Cyclones closed the tournament at 862 (-2), while Cincinnati took third at 903 (+39).

Tribolet captured seventh individually with a 54-hole total of 219 (+3), including a second-round 71 (-1). Kono finished in a tie for eighth just two strokes back of Tribolet. Kono’s three-round total of 221 included an opening-round 71 (-1).

Kaleigh Babineaux gave Nebraska a third top-25 finisher, closing at 227 (+11) in a tie for 21st.

Husker All-American Kate Smith Competed on 2025 LPGA Tour
Former Husker Kate Smith-Stroh captured her LPGA Tour Card for the 2025 season by tying for 19th at the LPGA Q-Series Final Qualifying Stage in Mobile, Ala., Dec. 10, 2024.

Smith-Stroh, an All-American and Big Ten Champion for Nebraska as a fifth-year senior in 2021, put together five solid rounds in Alabama to finish at 350 (-8) with rounds of 69-71-67-72-71 on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail - Magnolia Grove to secure a 2025 LPGA Tour Card.

One of the best golfers in Nebraska history, Smith-Stroh competed on the Epson Tour (2022-24). During the 2023 season, she competed in 22 events and made 19 cuts, while recording four top-10 finishes. She tied for second at the Four Winds Invitational. She added 19 events while making 13 cuts in 2024, including two more top-10 finishes.

Smith-Stroh earned nearly $116,000 in her first season on the LPGA Tour, including her first career top-10 finish at the Dow Championship in late June. Her tie for 10th at 265 (-15) over four rounds earned her just over $35,000. She added a tie for 18th at 276 (-12) at The Standard Portland Classic in mid-August to take home $25,000. Overall, she made eight cuts in 17 events.

The native of Detroit Lakes, Minn., was a two-time first-team All-Big Ten picked who stormed to the 2021 Big Ten title with a school-record 64 (-8) in the final round at TPC River’s Bend in Maineville, Ohio. She was a third-team All-American by Golfweek and an honorable-mention All-American by the WGCA before becoming the first Husker to compete in the Arnold Palmer Cup, helping the United States to a title. She was also the first Husker to compete in the Augusta National Women’s Amateur in 2021.